The Safeguarding Register is an organisation-level area in SignMeUp for recording and managing safeguarding concerns across all events run by an organisation.
It is not tied to a single event dashboard. Instead, it gives authorised safeguarding users a central register of concerns relating to any event in the organisation.
Who Should Use It
This area is intended for people acting as the Designated Safeguarding Officer, DSO, for an event or organisation.
Organisations should only give access to users who have appropriate safeguarding responsibility and training. As a minimum, this should normally mean users who have completed DSL/DSO Level 3 or above training and are acting as DSO for their event.
In practice, access should usually be limited to:
- The event or organisation DSO.
- The deputy DSO, DDSO, where one is appointed.
- A small number of senior safeguarding leads, only where genuinely required.
We strongly recommend downgrading general administrators to Full access excluding Safeguarding, unless they must have access to safeguarding records.
Access And Permissions
Safeguarding is controlled as its own permission within organisation administrator settings.
Administrators can be given:
- Full access including Safeguarding: full organisation admin access, including the Safeguarding Register.
- Full access excluding Safeguarding: full organisation admin access, but no access to the dedicated Safeguarding screens.
- Specific areas only: individual permissions, where Safeguarding can be granted separately.
Users without Safeguarding access may still see that a person has linked safeguarding concerns on an application risk-management screen, but they cannot see the concern details unless they have the correct permission. Attempting to open a concern without permission will be blocked.
System administrators sit above organisation-level permissions and can access all areas.
What Is Recorded
Each safeguarding concern includes:
- The event where the concern arose.
- The concern type.
- The primary person affected.
- Other linked people, where relevant.
- A short summary.
- A detailed description.
- Risk level.
- Initial action taken.
- Referral markers, such as school DSL, social care, police, LADO, or DBS.
- Status.
- Date and time of incident, where known.
- The user who recorded the concern.
- A unique organisation-level reference number.
Concern reference numbers start at `10000001` within each organisation and are unique within that organisation.
Updates And Audit Trail
Once a concern has been created, it is normally managed by adding updates rather than repeatedly editing the original record.
Each update records:
- The update description.
- The user who added it.
- The status applied at that point.
- The referral states applied at that point.
- The time it was added.
The update history is intended to provide a clear audit trail of how the concern was handled over time.
Application Risk Flags
Safeguarding concerns also interact with application risk management.
If a person is linked to an open safeguarding concern, SignMeUp can add a flag to that person’s applications for events that have not yet completed. The flag says that the person is linked to an open safeguarding concern and links to the relevant concern reference.
This helps registration teams identify where an applicant may need safeguarding review before being accepted or managed at an event.
If a safeguarding flag is manually cleared by a registration team member, it is not automatically re-applied for the same concern.
Data Protection And GDPR
Safeguarding records may contain sensitive personal data and special category data.
Organisations using this feature must ensure their data protection documentation reflects this processing. In particular, they should update their GDPR Processing Records to include:
- The types of safeguarding data being recorded.
- The lawful basis and special category condition relied on.
- Who has access to the data.
- How long records are retained.
- How data is secured.
- How data may be shared with statutory agencies or safeguarding partners.
Access should be reviewed regularly, and users who no longer need safeguarding access should have it removed promptly.
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